Foreign China-watchers, meanwhile, try to figure out who's in, who's out, missing a larger point of just how ungovernable China is becoming.

China's market economy, dubbed "dot.communism," is racing ahead of the corrupt  and idea-bankrupt  rule of the Communist Party. Desperate to keep legitimacy, the party now admits "capitalists" into its ranks. All the better to co-opt another potential challenger to a one-party state.

But worker protests are rising, income inequality is soaring, and pollution is abominable. That's an explosive mix, with the Chinese people all too willing to blame corrupt officials.

China needs a political release valve quickly, which only a democracy can provide.

Party leaders can't afford simply to shuffle their chairs on this Titanic.